A better question
is, “Who isn't watching you?” You hear
about it in the news every day. The NSA is grabbing tons of consumer
information without any legal authority. Weekly you hear about security
breaches at large corporations like Target and other major department
stores. Banking institutions are being
hacked for millions of dollars, yet billion of consumers are passively giving
up their privacy to free email services, social network subscriptions and smart
phone applications. Software applications have had "so-called"
artificial intelligence installed since the late '90s. Word processors guess at
what you mean while you type. Smartphones often do the same. What does all this
mean to your privacy? This article will explore how the internet has removed
most of your communications privacy. Now Google, social networks and the major
software players all have their sites trained on what you're doing with the
intention of getting more of your money. Worse of all, legions of criminals and
even our own government is spying on all of us. So read on and learn.
Forewarned is forearmed.

Let's Start by Looking at How
Google Tracks You

The
other day I went to send an email via Google’s Gmail service and I mentioned in
the body of the letter that I had attached a document. I forgot to attach the
document and pressed send. Immediately Gmail paused and asked me if I meant to
attach a file. Gmail was reading what I had written!! You will also notice that
the ads listed in Gmail also correspond to items you have recently viewed in
your browser. Sometimes it’s even something you’ve written about. What it boils
down to is that Gmail is scanning everything you write and then passing this
information onto to Google before you ever press send.

Google
tracking is not limited to your “free” Gmail account. Virtually
every service Google offers tracks your movements and keystrokes. Last July, when there was a huge buzz about
Google privacy policy changes, a small software company came out with a plug-in
for Google Chrome that would sound and display an alarm
every time Chrome would send tracking information back to Google. This
program created quite a stir because once you loaded it the alarm would go off
constantly because Google was tracking almost every keystroke.

Google Being Sued?

Currently
Google is being sued by several countries for excessive invasion of privacy.
Now, even Google’s competitors have jumped on the anti-privacy band wagon.
Microsoft started an anti-Google campaign saying Don’t Get Scroogled by Google.
Microsoft even came out with T-shirts and coffee cups that people could
buy. They also ran several TV
commercials nationwide taking potshots at Google’s privacy policies. Recently
Google removed your capability to control your privacy setting on android
devices running Android 4.42. I won’t bore you with a long list of application
services that Google uses to track you. It’s safe to say that all of them track
you in some way.

Many Other Companies are Also Taking Advantages of Us

When it
comes to data mining it’s
not just Google who’s doing it on a land office basis. Yahoo, Bing (owned
by Microsoft) and most search engines track you as well. Also any free service
you acquire from the internet virtually guarantees spyware of one form or
another. They track how often you use their apps, they will often load adware
on your devices, they will hound you to buy other applications and service and
they will record where you are and what other functions you may be using. This
is especially true of smart phone and tablet applications. You should read the
disclaimers that show up when you install any free app. Most say things like
they have access to your contact data base, ip address, system access and more.
That means that application can control vital functions of your smart device!

Recently
Microsoft released its new XBOX One game console and guess what? It requires
you to login to Microsoft in order to play the console! Earlier I alluded to
Microsoft Scroogled marketing campaign against Google. But the reality is that Microsoft has been
spying on you for a very long time. All Microsoft applications call home and
the Windows operating system calls home every day to check for updates and to
make sure your applications are paid for! They also use the crash recovery
monitor to send system information back that tracks what you are doing (what
apps were running) at the time of the crash.

Let not
forget to include in our discussion how Social Media tracks your conversation.
Any social network you subscribe to literally owns
the information you have keyed into their database. Every post, URL,
picture, podcast and video you have uploaded belongs to them. They systems scan
every keystroke and match it to ads that run on their system. They are
scrutinizing every personal and private entry you make. On top of that, your
employers and anyone you are connected with can see your posts! This can
includes criminals disguised as beautiful blonds and little old ladies that
just want to be friends. Be very careful
with what you post on any social network. Do not disclose your age, personal
address, when you are on vacation, when you’re not home, where you bank, or any
kind of private or financial information. Cyber criminals are monitoring social
networks more than ever. So much so that the FBI has raised the threat level
for social networks to the highest level.
Read
their articles on the FBI’s website. Add to this the ongoing threats from
hackers using widely available free hacking tools, deceptive email tactics and
phishing websites and you have an internet onslaught that’s wilder than the
wild, wild west.

Let’s Not Forget the NSA!

To make
things even worse our own government is spying on us. The
NSA is gathering hundreds of terabytes of data from Google, all social
media sites, Microsoft, Apple Yahoo, Bing, cell phone companies and many more
internet players. This has gotten so out of hand that the congressional
oversight committee that monitors the NSA recently stated that they had gone
too far in their data gathering strategies and they have to stop gathering
information without a specific threat.

In
addition, it not just the internet that is eroding your privacy, its anything
connected to internet. Smart devices are
everywhere. The Boston Bomber was caught because people where taking pictures
of the racers coming to the finish line. Internet security cameras are all the rage
with home and business owners. Often times one or more of their cameras are
pointed outside covering the entrance to their properties. The next time you’re
at Wal-Mart, look up before you enter and smile you’re on Wal-Mart candid
camera. And just to make it really
interesting, people are now starting to wear smart eye wear (such as Google
Glass) to record their surroundings. There are smart watches and tiny spy
cameras everywhere. Some large retailers have been caught tracking their
patrons store movements via the customers smart phone IP addresses and if you
have an app for that store running, more than likely you will receive a text,
email or popup suggesting you check out their latest special on whatever they
are trying to push on you, the unaware consumer.

So how
do you minimize your loss of privacy when using the internet? Well we have done
our research and have provided several alternative internet browsers, email,
search engines and anti tracking tools to help you, our readers get the privacy
they deserve.

A great Plug-in app is Abine’s DoNotTrackMe https://www.abine.com/. It works with Chrome and Firefox and does a decent job of minimizing ad tracking software. This can block web tracking, cookies and email tracking. Another woth mentioning is Web of Trust www.mywot.com/‎. This plug-in does not stop track of any kind but it does warn you about URL’s that have bad reputations so that you will avoid them..

Tablets, Smart phones and other smart devices need professional protection! – Make sure you are running an antivirus/malware application on your smart device. Make sure its on all the time. Only use apps that have been around for a while. They should have lots of downloads and say they do not use adware. Also buy the apps you use unless you are just trying it out.

Don’t use free email – A paid email service like Hushmail can provide no-ad private email for very little money. If you must use it, try using a masking application like DoNotTrackMe or use encryption software like the kind provided by TrendMicro or Voltage.

If you want to see a YouTube video on this subject, check out our WebTV show on call "Is Google Watching You! Its the TV version of the radio show. Keep an eye out for the cool hidden Easter eggs we have added to the TV version of the show.

In this
article, I discussed the current state of internet privacy and the
rampant lack of security that is available for the average user today. We
discussed Google’s many transgressions and how many of the largest companies in
the world are tracking us and abusing our privacy by tracking our smart devices
and internet usage without any abatement in sight. We also covered how social
networks own our content and track every post and tweet. Added to this mess are
cyber criminals trying to steal our financial information and identities while
the NSA is bent on collecting every shred of information that leaves a device
bound for the internet? Last we have provided several alternatives to you our
readers so that you can achieve better internet privacy. The list includes alternative
internet browsers, email services, social networks and search engines and anti
tracking/protection tools, that will reduce the amount of scrutiny you will
receive.

If
you liked this article, share it with your friends and co-workers. If you have
a comment related to this article, enter it in the section below. I have always
been amazed by the level of trust the American public places on Internet
companies. Let’s hope that this trust (and the trust in our courts) is well-founded. I hope the informative in this article was helpful and worth sharing
with your friends. Until next time, that's my opinion, I look
forward to hearing yours.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

If you like this article, you can find more by typing “Drones or robots” in the search box at the top left of this blog. If you found this article useful, share it with your friends, families and co-works. If you have a comment related to this article, leave it in the comment sections below. If you would like a free copy of our book, "Internet Marketing Tips for the 21st Century", fill out the form below.

Hector Cisneros is COO and director of Social Media
Marketing at Working the Web
to Win, an award-winning Internet marketing company based in Jacksonville,
Florida.He is also co-host of the
weekly Internet radio show, "Working the Web To Win"
on BlogTalkRadio.com, which airs every Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern. Hector is a
syndicated writer and published author of “60 Seconds to Success.”

With Christmas only a day away, that means that New Year’s Eve can’t be far behind. So as a little something extra for your Christmas stocking I thought a little retrospective on some of the topics we covered this year would be in order.

Social media has seen radical changes over the last three years. Their level of acceptance and use has Social networks now have the eyes and ears of billions of subscribers. The impact of organic search ranking is indisputable today. Also, its effect on product acceptance, adoption and loyalty has become so important that large companies are spending vast amounts of advertising money to create and measure its influence on their product sales and profitability. Cyber criminals are also taking advantage of this mass migration to social networks. My last two prediction articles have come in with a 95% accuracy rating and this year I am going out on a limb with a few of my prognostications. So read on and find out what I foresee the New Year will ring in for Social Networking in the year to come (including Facebook, Google+LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Pintrest and Blogger).
exploded. Many of the top social networks are now monetized and have become publicly held companies.

Every year I make internet marketing predictions based on my
research and intuition for the coming year. I have been right 98% of the time so
far. 2013 proved to be a wild ride for businesses engaged in internet marketing.
Social Media was a roller coaster of updates, upgrades and growth. Reputation management
jumps to the forefront as businesses realize they are vulnerable to negative social
press. Blogging and YouTube became mature services with widespread adoption taking
place. A little birdie named Hummingbird shook up the search market significantly
and many venerable household icons like TV news, and retail brick and mortar sales
gave way to their digital counterparts. So if you think these events were out of
this world wait till you see what's coming next year in 2014.

Google is Coming!

I predict Google will continue to dominate search while
Yahoo and Bing struggle to figure out how to make headway against the 800-lb
Gorilla. Google will spend 2014 continuing to consolidate and unify

its services.
This includes all the features in Google+, Gmail, YouTube, Search and its dozens
of other internet properties and services. Until other search engines realize that
they will have to provide more value for the money spent, they will continue to
lag far behind Google.

Google will continue to tweak its search engine algorithms as
it did in 2013. Google launched Hummingbird which was a major search algorithm update.
It knocked many internet advertisers off page one and got them lost in cyberspace.
We will see this trend continue until internet marketers accept the fact that trying
to game the system is futile or until a different search provider comes to the forefront.
Google has made content king for search, (i.e. relevant, timely and useful content)
leaving most businesses having to accept pay per click as their only real alternative
to search marketing.

Social media will continue to evolve and grow more specialized
as new players try to carve out a niche for themselves. Its influence on search
engine results, product adoption, and consumer acceptance will only grow, as consumers
start to rely on social ratings and social testimonials as decision making tools
when making most purchases.

This is icon for social networking website. This is part of Open Icon Library's webpage icon package. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Blogging and video will also affect how search is utilized as
more people receive greater bandwidth. Consumers will continue their move to access
information from the internet instead of conventional news services like TV, Newspaper,
radio and magazines. Video will continue to garner more clicks than any other type
of search listing so make sure you're creating videos in 2014. I also predict that
Google will debut video ads in Search and in their display network.

Online Retail Comes
of Age

Online sales will continue to grow as its momentum continues
to speed up. 2013 was the first year that Black Friday online sales exceeded Black
Friday brick and mortar sales. The only thing that can slow this growth is if the
government decides to enforce interstate sales taxation. However even if this law
is passed it will not stop internet sales growth because of the advantages it has
over conventional marketing. Since internet marketing is on demand, more ubiquitous,
infinitely more measurable and more cost effective than conventional advertising,
it will continue to grow and dominate marketing.

The King is Dead; Long
Live Content as King

Content marketing will finally get recognized by the advertising
industry as the defacto gold standard for the internet and conventional marketing.
Carl and I have been touting multi-media content marketing as the best way to achieve
organic position since 2010. It is also the best way to generate traffic and to
make sure Google search algorithm changes don’t knock you off age one.

Internet marketing will become more automated. 2013 saw many
large PR and other marketing firms that sell services to advertising agencies release
new PR, Search and Social Media marketing tools. The release of these 2.0 SAAS products
will mean that 2014 will usher in the beginning of an adoption phase of these products
by large and midsize advertising agencies. This will be followed by a 3.0 phase
in 2015-2016 where these systems will begin their widespread adoption at marketing
firms and advertising agencies in general.

Move Over Desk Top, Here Comes More Mobile

Mobile marketing will continue to grow as the billions of Smartphone
users learn how to use their new devices and become addicted to their convenience.
Also, businesses are ramping up their internet

marketing efforts to accommodate
these consumers. Mobile websites and landing pages are being built in large numbers.
Blogger along with other platforms are providing mobile versions of their products
automatically!

Text messages will continue to grow. This will be driven primarily
by the fact that our younger populations are addicted to texting and the fact that
Text messages are less likely to be ignored by Smartphone users. This service will
continue to grow and flourish, despite the banning of texting while driving in many
states.

Drone marketing & delivery will grow. 2013 saw drones being used in war and now in sales. Amazon made a big splash when their PR department launched stories about the potential to deliver products via aerial drones. 2013 saw many such publicity stunts. Expect to see many more in

Book marketing via teasers will grow - eBooks are restarting to outsell paperback and hardback books at a fast pace. The widespread adoption of tablets and eReaders has ushered in the digital reading age. The widespread creation of Blogs, desktop publishing and the fact that it's easy to publish eBooks on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, is creating an avalanche of new eBooks published by people who 5 years ago would have never thought of becoming authors. Expect to see more businesses using these tools to promote and build their brand in 2014 and beyond.

What’s Your Reputation?

Name and Reputation Management will continue to grow. Many businesses discovered in 2012 the harsh reality that they were vulnerable to negative press on social and product rating sites. As long
as people can anonymously post opinions on products and service, businesses will
have to engage in reputation management to mitigated negative press and to improve their positive press. Companies who initiate a social network program to garner testimonials and positive press will really reap their benefits. Those
who ignore this necessary segment of their marketing will suffer loss of brand credibility
and customers. Once the damage is done, businesses will find it much harder to fix their reputation than if they were proactively working to maintain their positive image.

In this article I discussed my internet marketing predictions
for 2014 and beyond. Understanding where Google is heading, what changes are coming
in social media, what is trending and what is changing in marketing are all worth
knowing. Staying abreast of the shift from conventional marketing to digital content
marketing is critical for all businesses. Seeing the paradigm shift from analog
to digital will continue to profoundly and fundamentally change the way we market
our products and services into the future. If you found this article to be useful,
share it with your friends, family and co-works. If you feel you have something
to add or just want to leave a comment do so below. It has been my pleasure writing
down my thoughts and sharing my 2014 predictions with you this year. I look forward
to seeing my predictions come true during the coming year and sharing more of my
findings with you in the year to come. IThanks again for reading and sharing.
That's my opinion; I look forward to reading yours.

On behalf of Working the Web to Win, we wish you
and yours Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.

If you like this article, you can find more by typing “Predictions” in the search box at the top left of this blog. If you found this article useful, share it with your friends, families and co-works. If you have a comment related to this article, leave it in the comment sections below. If you would like a free copy of our book, "Internet Marketing Tips for the 21st Century", fill out the form below.

That's my opinion, I look forward to hearing yours.

Hector Cisneros is COO and director of Social Media
Marketing at Working the Web
to Win, an award-winning Internet marketing company based in Jacksonville,
Florida.He is also co-host of the
weekly Internet radio show, "Working the Web To Win"
on BlogTalkRadio.com, which airs every Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern. Hector is a
syndicated writer and published author of “60 Seconds to Success.”

Search this Blog

How Do You Stack Up Online?

Free SEO Analysis

WHAT GOOGLE SAY'S ABOUT HIRING A VENDOR!

Our Social Site

Fill out the form to get our newsletters & Free eBook, Internet Marketing Tips for the 21st Century.

Buy our eBook on Amazon - Only 4.97

Best money you can spend online!

Our Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy - Your privacy is important to us. We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to information you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact from you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone. We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as necessary to fulfill your request. Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about specials, new services, or changes to this privacy policy.

By Hector Cisneros I have been actively networking in a number of organizations since the early 1980’s. My experience, tells me that most...

Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy - Your privacy is important to us. We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to information you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contacts from you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone. We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as necessary to fulfill your request. Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about our FREE eBooks, new services, specials, or changes to this privacy policy. If you to unsubscribe from our newsletter or remove access to our FREE eBooks, you can unsubscribe when you receive our newsletters, email me at, hectorc@workingthewebtowin.com with the heading Unscribe from Newsletter and Free eBooks, listing your the email address you subscribed with. you can also text me at 904-712-9355 with the same information or send us a letter to unsubscribe at Working the Web to Win, 3740 Beach Blvd. #300 Jacksonville Fl. 32207. Again please make sure you tell us the email address you subscribed with.